X 


*•* 


GIFT  OF 
SEELEY  W.  MUDD 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN    MEYER  ELSASSER 
DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 
JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTORI 

to  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


JOHN  FISKE 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


LETTERS   OF  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI 


M.    F.   FORCE 

BEAD  BEFORE  THE 

CONGRES   INTERNATIONAL   DES   AMERICANISTES 
AT  BRUSSELS 


1879 


CINCINNATI 

ROBERT   CLARKE   &   CO 

1885 

128632 


SOME   OBSERVATIONS 


Letters  of  Amerigo  Vespucci. 


Amerigo  Vespucci  appears  in  the  Spanish  records  as 
a  member  of  the  mercantile  house  of  Berardi,  at  Se- 
ville, until  February,  1496.  His  name  then  wholly  dis- 
appears until  February,  1505,  when  he  appears  on  his 
way  to  the  Spanish  Court,  bearing  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion from  Columbus  to  his  son  Diego.  From  the  letter 
it  appears  that  Vespucci  had  been  unfortunate  in  his 
affairs.  He  was  soon  taken  into  favor  by  Fonseca,  the 
enemy  of  Columbus,  and  rose  rapidly.  He  received 
letters  of  naturalization,  was  appointed  with  Pinzon  to 
command  in  a  fleet  that  was  to  sail  for  the  Spice  Islands, 
but  which  was  abandoned.  He  was,  in  1508,  appointed 
principal  pilot,  or  superintendent  of  charts,  and  so  re- 
mained till  his  death  in  1512. 

In  the  interval  between  his  disappearance  from  the 
records  as  a  merchant  in  February,  1496,  and  his  re-ap- 
pearance on  his  way  to  court  in  February,  1505,  he 
made  his  voyages.  In  the  examination  of  witnesses  in 
1512-13,  in  the  great  suit  of  the  heirs  of  Columbus 
against  the  crown  (which  suit  was  begun  in  1508),  Ojj'da, 
testifying  about  his  voyage  made  in  1499,  said  that  he 

(3) 


—  4  — 

was  accompanied  by  "  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  piloto,  e  Morigo 
Vespuche,  e  otros  pilotos."  There  is  no  other  record 
evidence  of  his  having  made  a  Spanish  voyage.  This 
statement  of  Oj/da  shows  that  Vespucci  did  not  sail  as 
a  pilot,  but  does  not  show  in  what  capacity  he  did  go. 
Of  this  statement,  Navarrete  says,  Tom.  Ill,  p.  718 :  "Esta 
es  la  timca  noticia  de  que  America  hubiese  navegado  halldn- 
dose  en  Espafia,  y  aun  se  ignora  en  que  clase  6  con  que  des- 
tino  fae  embarcado  en  esta  primer  a  expedition  de  Hojeda" 

The  exhaustive  investigation  of  Viscount  Santarem 
shows  that  Vespucci  is  not  named  or  in  any  way  referred 
to  in  any  of  the  records  or  archives  in  Portugal,  though 
the  navigation  records  of  the  reign  of  King  Manuel 
were  made  complete  under  his  personal  supervision,  and 
they  appear,  at  the  present  day,  complete  and  without 
break.  The  diplomatic  records  of  that  day  are  full  of 
reports  made  to  the  Pope,  to  various  sovereigns,  and  to 
the  Portuguese  embassadors  at  the  various  courts,  of 
the  voyages  and  discoveries  made  by  Portuguese  fleets, 
and  in  them  is  no  mention  made  of  Vespucci  or  any 
reference  to  him.  The  Portuguese  historians  and  an- 
nalists of  that  time  preserve  the  same  silence. 

There  is,  however,  Spanish  authority  for  the  fact  that 
Vespucci  sailed  to  South  America  in  a  Portuguese  fleet. 
Peter  Martyr,  who  was  acquainted  with  him,  and  was 
intimate  with  his  surviving  nephew,  says  that  Vespucci 
sailed  to  South  America  at  the  expense  of  the  King  of 
Portugal.  From  the  declarations  made  at  the  council 
of  Spanish  pilots  held  in  1515  (Navarrete,  Tom.  Ill,  p. 
319),  to  determine  the  line  of  boundary  between  the 


American  possessions  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  it  seems 
certain  that  Vespucci  visited  Cape  St.  Augustine  on  the 
coast  of  Brazil,  and  from  the  statement  of  ISTuno  Garcia 
it  seems  that  all  understood  that  he  sailed  in  a  Portu- 
guese fleet.  Gomara,  writing  indeed  forty  years  later, 
says  that  Vespucci  coasted  along  America  to  fifty  de- 
grees south  latitude,  under  the  command  of  the  King  of 
Portugal. 

Beyond  the  naked  fact  that  Vespucci  sailed  with 
Ojeda  in  his  voyage  of  1499,  and  also  visited  the  coast 
of  Brazil  at  least  once  in  a  Portuguese  vessel,  the  records 
give  no  information  concerning  his  voyages.  For  fur- 
ther information,  we  must  have  recourse  to  his  letters. 
Of  the  letters  discovered  or  said  to  be  discovered,  in 
manuscript  in  comparatively  recent  times,  I  have  nothing 
to  say.  The  two  letters  published  in  various  languages 
and  numerous  editions  during  the  life-time  of  Vespucci, 
one  giving  an  account  of  his  third  voyage,  published 
several  times  in  France  and  Germany  before  the  death  of 
Columbus,  the  other  describing  his  four  voyages,  deserve, 
as  they  have  often  received,  attentive  consideration. 

The  Bibliotheca  Americana  Vestustissima  of  Harrisse, 
and  the  admirable  disquisition  of  M.  d'Avezac  leave 
little  to  be  desired  concerning  the  bibliography  of  these 
letters.  The  letter  to  Laurentio  Petri  Francisci  de 
Medicis  was  first  printed  by  Jean  Lambert  in  Paris.  At 
least  there  is  a  common  consent  that  this  edition,  with- 
out date,  preceded  the  edition  of  Ottmar,  printed  in 
1504,  and  was  the  first.  In  a  very  few  years  eleven 
other  Latin  and  six  German  editions  appeared  in  France 


and  Germany.  In  1507  it  appeared  in  Italian,  in  the 
collection  entitled  Paesi  Novamente  Hitrovati,  printed 
in  Vicenza.  Within  a  very  few  years  numerous  editions 
and  translations  of  this  work,  in  Italian,  Latin,  French, 
and  German,  appeared  in  Italy,  France,  and  Germany. 

In  different  editions,  the  letter  is  variously  said  to 
have  been  originally  written  in  Italian,  Spanish,  and 
Portuguese.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  original 
tongue,  all  the  printed  copies,  even  the  Italian,  are  de- 
rived from  the  Latin.  For  the  name  of  Amerigo  Ves- 
pucci, even  in  the  Italian  copies,  appears  as  Alberigo,  a 
retranslation  of  the  Latinized  form,  Albericus.  Hence, 
not  one  was  printed  from  the  original  letter  or  from  a 
direct  copy  of  it. 

And  while  these  multitudinous  and  quickly  recurring 
editions  flooded  France,  Germany,  and  various  states  in 
Northern  Italy,  no  one  edition  appeared  in  Portugal, 
Spain,  or  Florence.  Hence  the  letter,  while  printed 
every-where  else,  was  not  printed  in  the  state  where  the 
writer  was  domiciled,  or  in  the  state  where  his  corre- 
spondent lived. 

The  letter  states  that  Vespucci  sailed  at  the  expense 
and  by  the  command  of  the  King  of  Portugal  on  the 
king's  fleet.  Viscount  Santarem,  keeper  of  the  Portu- 
guese archives,  after  an  exhaustive  personal  examination, 
says  that  the  marine  records  of  King  Manuel,  made 
elaborately  complete  by  the  personal  supervision  of  the 
king,  remain  to  this  day  complete,'the  series  absolutely 
unbroken,  and  they  contain  no  mention  of,  or  reference 
to,  any  such  expedition,  or  fleet,  or  command. 


7  — 


The  letter  proceeds  with  stating  that  while  the  igno- 
rant pilots  of  the  fleet  were  roaming  about,  not  know- 
ing within  five  hundred  leagues  where  they  were,  all 
would  have  been  lost  hut  for  Vespucci's  knowledge  of 
cosmography.  "  Hence,  the  mariners  held  me  in  much 
honor,  for  I  showed  that  without  knowledge  of  the 
chart,  I  knew  the  science  of  navigation  better  than  all 
the  sea  captains  of  the  globe."  It  is  true  that  Colum- 
bus had,  some  years  before,  in  one  of  his  first  voyages, 
complained  of  the  ignorance  of  his  pilots.  But  Spain 
was  not  yet  a  maritime  nation.  "While  the  pilots  of 
Portugal,  joining  practical  experience  to  careful  prepa- 
ration and  training,  were  the  boldest  and  most  skilled 
of  the  time.  The  sea  captains  of  the  little  portion  of 
the  globe  contained  within  the  limits  of  Portugal  com- 
prised De  Grama,  Cabral,  Cortereal,  Coelbo,  Caminha, 
Magellan.  Their  voyages  had  not  only  rounded  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  extended  to  India,  but  Cabral 
had  already  discovered  and  visited  the  very  coast  which 
Vespucci  was  going  to  explore.  Of  sea  captains  from 
other  parts  of  the  globe  than  Portugal,  we  need  only  to 
name  Columbus,  whose  superiority  as  a  navigator  Ves- 
pucci never  questioned — outside  of  this  letter.  The 
boasting  and  the  depreciation  are  alike  inconsistent  with 
all  that  is  known  of  Vespucci  from  other  sources  than 
these  letters. 

The  letter  says  he  observed  about  twenty  stars,  of  as 
great  luster  as  we  have  sometimes  seen  in  Venus  and 
Jupiter.  "  I  have  by  geometric  measures  taken  their 
peripheries  and  diameters,  and  I  have  found  them  to  be 


of  greater  magnitude."  No  one  can  believe  that  Ves- 
pucci penned  that  absurdity. 

The  letter  undertakes  to  describe  the  stars,  their 
grouping  and  position,  and  to  give  their  declination,  and 
diagrams  are  given  to  aid  the  description.  Yet  no  man 
has  ever  been  able  to  identify  the  stars  so  described. 
Humboldt  with  charitable  toil  essayed  the  task,  and  se- 
lected stars  which  he  supposed  might  possibly  be  those 
referred  to.  But  when  his  friend  M.  Ideler,  the  as- 
tronomer, at  his  request  made  a  like  attempt,  a  wholly 
different  list  of  stars  was  the  result.  The  constellations 
of  the  southern  hemisphere  attracted  the  attention  of 
every  navigator  who  crossed  the  meridian.  Dominating 
over  all,  the  splendor  of  the  southern  Cross  fixed  at 
once  the  attention  of  all.  No  difficulty  has  been  found 
in  identifying  constellations,  stars,  nebulae,  coal  bags, 
and  Magellanic  clouds  named  by  other  navigators.  But 
no  man  has  been  able  to  comprehend  the  description  of 
this  astronomer,  who  sailed  to  fifty  degrees  south,  with- 
out observing  the  Southern  Cross. 

The  meteorology  of  the  letter  is  akin  to  its  astronomy. 
It  says  :  "  I  have  seen  .things  quite  at  variance  with  the 
doctrines  of  philosophers.  A  white  iris  was  twice  seen 
about  midnight,  not  only  by  me,  but  also  by  all  the  sea- 
men." It  is  not  easy  to  understand  what  is  meant  by  a 
white  iris,  other  than  the  common  circle  arounu  the 
moon.  And  if,  as  Humboldt  benevolently  suggests,  a 
lunar  rainbow  was  meant,  the  announcement  is  not  much 
less  puerile. 

A  long  paragraph  is  taken  up  in  enforcing  the  state- 


g 

incut,  that  as  Lisbou  is  thirty-nine  and  a  half  degrees 
north,  and  the  voyage  extended  to  fifty  degrees  south, 
Vespucci  sailed  ninety  degrees,  and,  to  aid  in  making 
that  statement  intelligible,  a  diagram  is  added.  All 
which  is  more  like  the  babbling  of  a  child  than  a  serious 
communication  from  a  learned  man  to  one  of  the  fore- 
most citizens  of  Florence. 

In  describing  the  natives,  the  letter  says  :  "  Human 
flesh  is  their  common  food."  "A  father  has  been  seen 
to  eat  his  sons  and  wives."  '•  I  also  tarried  twenty- 
seven  days  in  a  certain  town,  where  I  saw  from  house 
to  house  salted  human  flesh  hanging  from  the  ceiling 
rafters  as  is  the  custom  with  us  to  hang  up  bacon  and 
hog's  flesh."  Both  Columbus  and  Hojeda  understood 
signs  made  on  one  or  two  occasions  of  natives  to  mean 
there  was  a  tribe  of  cannibals  living  at  a  distance  whom 
they  dreaded.  But  the  cannibals  were  never  found.  It 
is  very  certain  that -Vespucci  did  not  see  feasts  of  human 
flesh,  nor  did  he  see  salted  human  or  other  meat  hang- 
ing from  the  rafters  of  native  huts.  And  Vespucci 
stood  in  high  repute  among  those  who  knew  him. 

Professor  Ringmann,  of  Strasbourg,  coming  across  a 
copy  of  this  letter,  was  so  fascinated  with  its  extrava- 
gance, "  ipsis  quidem  inlerfectis  inimicis  cupidissime  solet 
vesci"  prepared  another  edition,  which  was  printed  by 
Hurjfuff  in  1505.  But  in  some  introductory  verses,  he 
gives  the  prudent  caution, 

Candide  sincero  capias  hunc  pectore  lector 
Et  le.ge  non  naso  Rhinocerontis. 

The  genuineness  of  this  letter  as  a  veritable  produc- 


—  10  — 

tion  of  Vespucci  has,  perhaps,  not  been  questioned.  A 
contest  has  raged  upon  the  different  question,  whether 
or  not  Vespucci  was  a  deliberate  falsifier.  Humboldt, 
whose  Examen  Critique  is  as  remarkable  for  its  perfect 
judicial  temper  as  for  its  prodigality  of  research,  sug- 
gests that  the  letter  was  seriously  mangled  in  getting 
into  print.  There  is  no  ground  for  questioning  the 
veracity  of  Vespucci  outside  of  the  printed  letters  which 
bear  his  name.  If  we  extract  from  this  letter  all  the 
passages  that  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  all  that 
we  know  of.  him  from  other  sources,  but  a  slender 
thread  will  be  left.  For  one,  I  find  it  easier  to  believe 
that  "  le  celebre  humanists,  epigraphiste,  architecte,  et  matke- 
maticien  veronais,  Fra  Giovanni  del  Gf-iocondo"  while  con- 
structing the  Pont  Notre-Dame  and  Petit-Pont  in  Paris, 
whiled  away  his  idle  moments  in  composing  this  letter, 
a  fiction  adapted  to  the  public  imagination,  heated  by 
fragmentary  accounts  of  the  new  lands  just  found  be- 
yond the  great  ocean,  than  to  believe  he  was  translating 
it  from  a  genuine  letter  written  by  Amerigo  Vespucci. 

The  letter  which  so  fascinated  Bingmann  in  Stras- 
bourg, stated  it  was  an  account  of  the  third  voyage 
made  by  Vespucci ;  that  he  had  previously  made  two 
other  voyages,  and  was  about  to  make  a  fourth,  and 
that  he  proposed  to  "  write  a  book  of  geography  or 
cosmography,  so  that  my  memory  may  live  with  pos- 
terity," etc. 

Two  years  later  the  famous  Cosmographies  Introductio, 
being  a  treatise  on  cosmography,  together  with  a  letter 
of  Vespucci,  describing  his  four  voyages,  appeared. 


—  11  — 

published  in  the  neighboring  town  of  St.  Die,  prepared 
and  edited  by  three  of  Ringmann's  friends.  M.  d'Ave- 
zac,  in  his  Martin  Hylacomjlus  Waltzemuller,  ses  ouvrages 
et  ses  collaborateurs,  has  thrown  a  flood  of  light  upon  the 
preparation  of  this  little  book.  He  shows  that  Waltze- 
muller  wrote  the  preliminary  treatise  on  cosmography  ; 
the  poet,  Jean'  Basin,  prepared,  that  is,  translated  into 
Latin,  the  letter,  and  Walter  Lud,  hereditary  secretary 
of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  supplied  the  means  for  the 
publication.  R-ingmann  aided,  by  giving  a  copy  of  the 
verses  which  he  had  prefixed  to  the  Strasbourg  edition 
of  the  third  voyage  and  writing  others.  The  pamphlet 
is  a  unit.  The  tract  on  cosmography,  filled  with  allu- 
sions to  Amerigo  Vespucci  in  the  annexed  letter,  and 
suggesting  that  the  New  World  should  be  named  from 
him  Amerige  or  America,  is  an  introduction  to  the  letter. 

All  four  of  the  voyages  described  are  to  the  conti- 
nent of  South  America.  The  first  is  Vespucci's  first 
voyage  to  that  continent.  The  first  voyage  made  to  that 
continent  was  the  voyage  of  Columbus  in  1498.  The 
second  was  the  voyage  of  Ojeda  in  1499.  Vespucci  was 
not  with  Columbus ;  he  was  with  Ojeda.  These  facts  are 
established  beyond  controversy  by  the  testimony  of  the 
navigators,  captains,  and  pilots,  in  the  suit  of  the  heirs 
of  Columbus  against  the  crown.  Hence,  an  account  of 
Vespucci's  first  voyage  is  an  account  of  Ojeda's  voyage 
of  1499. 

Humboldt  finds  in  the  narrative  in  the  letter  what 
may  be  called  a  substantial,  though  imperfect  and  con- 
fused and  inaccurate  account  of  Ojeda's  voyage.  The 


—  12  — 

year  given  in  the  letter  is  indeed  wrong,  being  1497 
instead  of  1499,  but  is  correct  in  saying  the  voyage  be- 
gan on  the  20th  of  May,  from  the  port  of  Cadiz  and 
with  four  vessels,  and  continued  by  the  Canary  Islands 
to  the  continent.  The  letter,  however,  says  the  conti- 
nent was  first  touched  at  sixteen  degrees  N".,  while  Ojeda 
first  touched  at  three  degrees  !N".  The  voyage  was  thence 
continued  along  the  coast  toward  the  north-west.  The 
inhabitants  are  described  in  the  letter  nearly  as  in  the 
letter  to  di  Medici,  and  it  is  said  they  eat  little  flesh  other 

than  human   food.     The  voyage  continued  along   the 

• 

coast  till  a  village  was  discovered  built  over  the  water  on 
piles,  which  they  called  Little  Venice,  and  had  a  combat 
with  its  inhabitants.  The  voyage  proceeded  thence 
eighty  leagues  to  a  port  where  the  inhabitants  were 
hospitable  and  gracious,  and  where  the  voyagers  made 
a  visit  to  the  interior  and  were  received  with  distin- 
guished honor.  This  region,  the  letter  says,  is  called 
Paria,  and  lies  in  twenty  degrees  1ST.  Thence  they  pro- 
ceeded along  the  coast  eight  hundred  and  seventy 
leagues  farther,  and  having  been  absent  from  Spain  thir- 
teen months,  rested  thirty-seven  days  in  the  finest  har- 
bor in  the  world,  repairing  their  vessels.  Being  much 
besought  by  the  natives,  they  sailed  for  the  island  of  Ity, 
inhabited  by  a  hostile  and  dreaded  tribe.  This  island 
being  reached  after  a  sail  of  seven  days  by  numerous 
other  islands,  a  fierce  battle  ensued,  in  which  the  Span- 
iards lost  one  killed  and  twenty-two  wounded.  They 
sailed  thence  for  Spain  with  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  captives,  who  were  sold  as  slaves  upon  their  arrival 


—  13  — 

in  Cadiz,  Oct.  15,  1499,  after  an  absence  of  eighteen 
months. 

Ojeda,  in  proceeding  along  the  coast,  at  first  noticed 
the  sea  was  quite  fresh  from  the  quantity  of  water  dis- 
charged by  two  great  rivers,  and  the  coast  low  and 
swampy.  The  current  swept  toward  the  north-west. 
They  entered  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  and  at  Cape  Codera 
made  a  visit  to  the  interior,  where  the  Spaniards  were 
received  by  the  natives  with  distinguished  honor. 
Thence  to  the  port  of  Chichirirchi,  where  ensued  a  fierce 
battle,  in  which  the  Spaniards  lost  one  killed  and  twenty 
wounded.  To  cure  the  wounded,  Ojeda  went  to  a  port 
near  Yela  de  Coro  where  he  rested  twenty  days.  Ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  the  pilot,  Andres  de  Morales, 
Ojeda  passed  by  the  Island  of  Giants  (the  island  of 
Curacoa).  Farther  on  he  discovered  a  village  built  over 
the  water  on  piles  like  Venice,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
he  found  more  beautiful  and  gracious  than  the  other 
natives.  In  three  months  he  had  visited  six  hundred 
leagues  of  coast,  and  on  the  30th  of  August  sailed  for 
Haiti.  Passing  many  islands,  he  reached  Haiti  Sep- 
tember 5,  1499,  and  landed  at  the  harbor  of  Yaquimo, 
having  been  absent  from  Cadiz  three  months  and  six- 
teen days.  Ojeda  had  many  captives  with  him  on  his 
arrival  there.  He  was  arrested  by  Roldayf,  and  detained 
in  Haiti  till  February,  1500,  so  that  he  did  not  reach 
Cadiz  on  his  return  till  the  middle  of  June,  1500. 

While  there  are  some  striking  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  account  of  Vespucci's  first  voyage  and 
Ojeda's  voyage  of  1499,  yet  the  differences  are  greater 


—  14  — 

and  more  positive.  The  letter  describes  the  inhabitants 
of  Little  Venice  as  hostile  and  repelling  the  approach 
of  the  Spaniards  by  stratagem  and  violence,  while  Ojeda 
was  received  with  gracious  hospitality.  The  letter  de- 
scribes the  visit  to  the  island  of  Ity  as  made  with  hostile 
intent,  and  that  island  as  the  scene  of  the  fierce  battle. 
Ojeda  had  his  battle  on  the  continent,  and  found  Haiti 
already  occupied  by  a  Spanish  settlement  and  govern- 
ment, that  had  no  trouble  with  the  mild  and  submissive 
natives. 

The  letter  speaks  of  Little  Venice  as  near  the  begin- 
ning of  the  coasting  voyage,  while  it  was  near  the  ter- 
mination of  Ojeda's.  The  letter  describes  a  voyage 
begun  in  1497,  reaching  the  shores  of  South  America  at 
sixteen  degrees  N.,  proceeding  thence  to  twenty  degrees 
N.,and  eight  hundred  and  seventy  leagues  beyond  that, 
in  thirteen  months.  Ojeda  sailed  in  1499,  reached  the 
shores  of  South  America  in  thirty  degrees  N.,  and  spent 
three  months  on  the  coast,  making  in  all  six  hundred 
leagues  along  the  shore.  The  letter  makes  Vespucci 
return  to  Cadiz  in  October,  1499,  while  Ojida  did  not 
return  till  June,  1500. 

If  we  accept  the  suggestion  of  Humboldt  that  Ves- 
pucci, with  one  vessel  or  more,  left  Ojeda  at  Haiti  and 
proceeded  at  once  to  Cadiz,  still  the  letter  can  not  in 
any  real  sense  be  called  a  narrative  of  Ojeda's  voyage. 
M.  de  Varnhagen,  in  his  paper  read  before  the  Societe 
de  Geographic,  in  Paris,  in  1858,  rejected  the  idea  that 
the  letter  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  attempted  description 
of  Ojeda's  voyage,  and  accepting  the  dates,  latitudes, 


—  15  — 

and  distances  as  given  in  the  letter,  maintains  that  Ves- 
pucci made,  in  1497,  an  unrecorded  voyage  along  the 
coast  of  South,  Central,  and  North  America,  circling 
the  entire  Gulf  of  Mexico,  doubling  Florida,  and  ex- 
tending into  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  It  is  true  the 
testimony  given  in  the  case  of  the  heirs  of  Columbus 
against  the  crown  makes  it  quite  impossible  that 
any  such  voyage  was  ever  made.  But  the  paper  of  M. 
de  Varnhagen  is  interesting  as  unintentionally  showing 
that  the  account  of  Vespucci's  first  voyage,  as  given  in 
the  letter,  is  not  a  real  account  of  any  actual  voyage. 
According  to  the  letter,  Vespucci  started  from  Cadiz, 
on  his  second  voyage,  in  May,  14&9,  passed  by  the 
Canary  Islands  and  the  Island  of  Fire,  and  sailing  nine- 
teen days  thence  across  the  ocean,  reached,  in  five  de- 
grees S.,  on  the  27th  June,  a  new  land,  which  was  taken 
to  be  a  continent.  The  shores  were  low  and  marshy, 
and  the  water  of  the  sea  made  fresh  by  the  current  of 
great  rivers.  Sailing  along  the  coast,  they  met  a  fleet 
of  canoes  and  captured  one.  Farther  on,  they  were 
delayed  seventeen  days  in  the  harbor  to  repair,  and 
bought  a  number  of  pearls.  Later,  they  reached  the  Isl- 
and of  Giants,  inhabited  by  people  of  prodigious  stature. 
Farther  to  the  north-west,  they  stopped  in  a  sheltered 
•cove  forty-seven  days  to  repair  their  vessels,  and  here 
purchased  one  hundred  and  nineteen  marks  of  pearls. 
Thence  he  proceeded  to  the  Island  of  Antiglia,  "  dis- 
covered a  few  years  before  by  Christopher  Columbus," 
remained  there  two  months  and  two  days  refitting,  sub- 
jected to  continual  annoyances  by  the  Christian  colo- 


—  16  — 

• 

nists,  and  sailed  thence  directly  for  Spain,  leaving  on  the 
22d  July,  and  reaching  Cadiz  8th  September. 

The  actual  voyage  most  resembling  this  narrative  is 
that  of  Pinzon.  He  left  Palos  with  four  ships  in  De- 
cember, 1499,  passed  by  the  Canary  Islands  and  the 
Island  of  Fire,  and  reached  the  coast  of  South  Amer- 
ica in  eight  degrees  S.,  on  the  20th  January,  1500, 
Pinzon  landed  and  took  possession  with  all  the  cere- 
monies of  the  day.  He  noticed  new  constellations  ID 
the  sky  and  the  absence  of  any  star  marking  the  south 
pole.  The  natives  were  large  and  warlike,  the  country 
flat  and  marshy,  and  the  sea  made  fresh  by  the  quantity 
of  water  discharged  by  large  rivers.  First  advancing 
forty  leagues  farther  south,  he  turned  to  the  northr 
passed  the  mouths  of  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco,  and 
was  put  into  peril  by  the  commotion  of  the  waters. 
Landing,  a  combat  with  the  natives  ensued,  in  which 
ten  Spaniards  were  wounded.  Sailing  along  the  coast 
to  Little  Venice,  he  then  directed  his  course  to  Haiti, 
stopping  on  the  way  at  Guadalupe  and  Porto  Rico. 
Without  delaying  at  Haiti,  he  sailed  to  the  Bahama 
Islands,  where  two  of  his  vessels  were  wrecked  and  lost. 
Turning  thence  for  Spain,  he  arrived  at  Palos,  30th  Sep- 
tember, 1500.  This  voyage  was  distinguished  for  bring- 
ing home  topazes,  medicinal  herbs,  and  some  animals. 

While  there  are  points  of  resemblance  between  the 
letter  and  Pinzon's  voyage,  it  is  obvious  that  the  letter 
can  not,  in  any  sense,  be  called  a  narrative  or  account 
of  that  voyage.  The  discrepancies  are  so  great  as  to  be 
entirely  irreconcilable.  The  extent  and  direction  of  the 


—  17  — 

voyage  along  the  coast,  the  delay  at  Haiti  (Antiglia  be- 
ing the  Portuguese  name  of  Haiti),  and  the  rough  treat- 
ment received  at  the  hands  of  the  Christian  residents  of 
that  island,  correspond  with  Ojeda's  voyage,  and  accord- 
ingly M.  de  Yarnhagen  maintains  that  Vespucci's  sec- 
ond voyage  was,  in  fact,  the  voyage  of  Ojida  of  1499. 

The  purchase  of  the  great  quantity  of  pearls  along 
the  coast,  however,  belongs  neither  to  the  voyage  of 
Pinaon  nor  to  Ojeda,  but  to  the  wholly  different  voyage 
of  Alonzo  Nino,  who  left  Spain  in  June,  1499,  and 
coasted,  along  the  northern  shore  of  South  America. 
Nino  brought  to  Spain  one  hundred  and  twenty  marks 
of  pearls,  and  it  was  on  that  account  famous  as  the 
pearl  voyage.  It  was  in  Nino's  voyage  that  occurred 
the  incident  of  the  capture  of  the  Carib  canoe^with  ban- 
daged Indian  prisoners.  Nino  reported  the  practice 
among  some  of  the  natives  of  chewing  green  leaves. 

Contributions  from  the  three  voyages  of  Pinzon,  Ojeda, 
and  Nino  make  up  nearly  the  whole  of  the  second  voy- 
age of  Vespucci,  as  narrated  in  the  letter  to  Rene.  The 
rest  can  easily  be  found  in  the  voyages  of  Columbus. 

The  narrative  of  Vespucci's  third  voyage  being  his 
first  voyage  in  a  Portuguese  vessel,  is  shorter  and  pruned 
of  many  of  the  extravagancies  which  appear  in  the  sep- 
arate narrative  of  it  previously  published.  But  in  this 
letter  also,  it  is  stated  that  Vespucci  noted  the  diame- 
ter as  well  as  the  declination  of  many  of  the  more  con- 
spicuous stars.  The  narrative  also  gives  a  warm  ac- 
count of  a  pressing  letter  sent  by  King  Manuel,  of  Por- 
tugal, to  Vespucci,  inviting  him  to  Lisbon  ;  the  special 


—  18  — 

messenger  sent  to  enforce  the  invitation  ;  the  enthusi- 
astic welcome  given  by  the  king  to  Vespucci ;  and  his 
departure  in  compliance  with  the  entreaties  of  the  king 
upon  a  fleet  dispatched  by  the  king.  The  investigations 
of-Viscount  Santarem  show,  as  far  as  negative  proof  can 
show  any  thing,  that  no  such  letter  was  written  to  Ves- 
pucci, no  such  reception  was  accorded  to  him,  and  no 
such  fleet  was  despatched  by  the  king.  If  Vespucci 
made  the  voyage,  it  must  have  been  a  private  expedition. 
The  whole  story  of  the  invitation  seems  merely  a  sub- 
stitution of  the  names  of  Vespucci  and  King  Manuel, 
for  Columbus  and  King  John,  in  the  account  of  a  real 
transaction  which  happened  some  years  earlier.  While 
in  this  narrative  there  is  more  reserve  in  the  description 
of  the  natives,  the  itinerary  is  more  full.  But  as  there 
is  no  account  of  the  voyage  other  than  the  account 
given  by  Vespucci,  we  have  nothing  to  compare  his 
statements  with.  We  can,  however,  observe  that  the 
letter  states  the  highest  southern  latitude  reached  was 
fifty-two  degrees  S. ;  while  it  also  states  that  a  point 
was  reached  where,  on  the  7th  April,  the  nights  are 
fifteen  hours  long,  or  seventy-two  and  a  half  degrees  S. 
Of  the  remainder  of  the  narrative,  being  the  account 
of  the  fourth  voyage,  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  any  thing. 
It  is  generally  admitted  that  this  is  intended  as  an  ac- 
count of  the  voyage  of  Coelho.  Yet,  while  Coelho, 
having  lost  four  of  his  ships  by  wreck,  brought  himself 
the  remaining  two  back  to  Lisbon,  the  letter  says  that 
Vespucci  brought  the  two  saved  vessels  to  Lisbon,  while 
the  commander  was  lost  with  the  remainder  of  the  fleet. 


—  19  — 

/ 

And  while  nearly  one-half  of  the  narrative  of  this  voy- 
age is  taken  up  with  an  account  of  the  island  in  mid- 
ocean,  two  leagues  long  and  one  league  wide,  and  the 
disaster  on  its  shore,  it  has  been  impossible  to  identify 
the  island  so  carefully  described.  The  island  of  Ferdi- 
nand de  Noronha,  which  agrees  more  nearly  with  it  than 
any  other,  is  at  least  eight  times  as  long,  and,  instead  of 
being  midway  between  Africa  and  South  America,  is, 
relatively,  near  to  the  coast  of  South  America. 

\The  drift  of  these  remarks,  which  could  be  continued 
to  greater  length  and  in  greater  detail,  has  not  been  at 
all  to  argue  that  Vespucci  did  not  make  four  voyages, 
but  to  show  that  the  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Lorraine 
could  not  have  been  written  by  Vespucci  as  a  narrative 
of  his  voyages. 

The  letter  consists  of  two  parts — a  preliminary  epistle 
to  Rene,  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  Bar,  and  called  also 
King  of  Jerusalem  and  Sicily,  and  a  narrative  of  the 
four  voyages.  The  narrative  was  written  as  a  report  to 
King  Ferdinand,  and  a  copy  or  duplicate  was  sent  with 
the  preliminary  epistle  to  Rene  ;  "  ad  Ferdinandum  Cas- 
tiliae  Regem  Scriptas,  ad  te  quoque  mittam."  Vespucci 
sailed  with  Ojeda  in  1499,  and,  accepting  the  theory  of 
Humboldt,  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  sailed  also  with 
Pinzon.  But  this  report  to  King  Ferdinand  of  two 
voyages  made  under  the  flag  of  Castile,  is,  clearly,  not  an 
account  of  those  two  voyages  ;  it  is  not  an  account  of 
any  voyages  ever  actually  made ;  it  is  a  patch- work  of 
the  routes  and  incidents  of  various  voyages  made  by 


—  20  — 

various  navigators,  represented  as  happening  at  impos- 
sible dates. 

Both  the  preliminary  epistle  and  the  narrative  call 
Ferdinand  of  Arragon,  King  of  Castile,  and  state  that 
the  two  Spanish  voyages  were  made  by  direction  of  Fer- 
dinand. Yet  Vespucci  well  knew  that  the  citizens  of 
Arragon  were  not  even  allowed  to  visit  the  American 
shores,  the  possessions  of  Isabella  of  Castile. 

As  Ojeda,  in  his  voyage  of  149/,  used  a  chart  of  the 
coast  which  Columbus  had  sent  to  Spain,  and  found  along 
the  coast  traces  of  the  visit  made  by  Columbus,  Ves- 
pucci would  hardly,  in  his  narrative  of  that  voyage  to 
the  king,  have  omitted  all  reference  to  Columbus  and 
written  as  if  he  were  the  first  discoverer  of  that  coast. 

In  the  entire  letter  the  only  reference  to  Columbus  is 
the  incidental  mention  that  he  had  lately  discovered  the 
island  of  Antiglia.  It  is  not  credible  that  Vespucci,  in 
writing  to  King  Ferdinand,  would  call  Haiti  by  the 
name  given  to  it  by  the  Portuguese. 

In  the  entire  narrative  there  is  no  mention  whatever 
of  the  name  of  the  commander  of  any  expedition,  cap- 
tain of  any  vessel,  or  pilot,  or  any  other  person  in  any 
of  the  expeditions  but  of  Vespucci ;  nor  is  there  even 
any  indication  of  what  position  he  held  or  in  what 
capacity  he  sailed.  Navarrete  remarks  upon  this 
(Tom.  3,  p.  290)  :  "El  no  haberse  expresado  el  nombre  del 
comandante  de  la  escuadra,  ni  el  de  otra  alguna  persona  en 
las  cuatro  relaciones  precedentes,  puede  inducir  sospechas  de 
su  poca  veracidad.  No  parece  sino  que  se  quiso  huir  de  que 
hubiese  citas  que  evacuar  y  modios  de  comprobar  lo  cierto." 


While  it  is  true  that  the  entire  absence  of  names  and 
other  means  of  identification,  the  "vague  desesperant" 
that  Humboldt  complains  of,  may  well  be  pronounced  a 
contrivance  by  the  writer  of  the  narrative  to  prevent 
the  detection,  or  at  least  the  immediate  detection,  of  his 
fiction,  yet  one  can  not  imagine  a  more  idle  and  vain 
eifort  than  such  a  contrivance  in  a  letter  from  Vespucci 
to  King  Ferdinand  concerning  voyages  said  to  be  made 
by  Vespucci  under  the  orders  of  Ferdinand. 

The  only  way  I  see  out  of  the  difficulties  which  sur- 
round these  letters,  is  to  say  they  were  not  written  by 
Vespucci.  There  is  some  warrant  for  this  conclusion  in 
the  absolute  inattention  and  indifference  to  these  letters 
among  the  contemporaries  of  Vespucci  in  Spain.  If  any 
person  in  Spain  supposed  that  this  narrative  had  been 
written  by  Vespucci,  if  any  person  in  Spain  supposed  that 
Vespucci  ever  claimed  to  have  visited  the  coast  of  South 
America  in  1497,  there  would  have  been  some  mention  of 
it  in  the  case  of  the  heirs  of  Columbus  against  the 
crown,  where  the  government  strained  every  nerve  to 
restrict  the  extent  of  the  actual  discoveries  made  by 
Columbus  ;  and  the  friends  and  partisans  of  Columbus 
would  have  shown  some  resentment  against  Vespucci. 
But  the  friends  and  opponents  of  Columbus  alike  ignored, 
as  if  it  did  not  exist,  this  narrative  that  was  flooding 
France  and  Germany  ;  four  editions  of  which,  as  M.  de 
Varnhagen  shows,  were  printed  in  St.  Die,  in  1507.  It 
was  only  later,  many  years  after  the  death  of  both  Co- 
lumbus and  Vespucci,  when  the  abundant  translation 
and  repetition  of  the  narrative  in  all  the  countries  of 


—  22  — 

•  Europe  outside  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  had  incorporated 
the  narrative  into  the  literature  and  the  belief  of  Eu- 
rope, that  the  good  Las  Casas  inveighed  against  the  false- 
hood of  Vespucci. 

If  the  letter  shows  an  ignorance,  that  would  be  sin- 
gular in  a  resident  of  Spain,  of  the  title  of  King  Ferdi- 
nand, it  displays  an  equally  singular  minute  acquaint- 
ance with  the  title  of  Rene,  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  Bar/, 
Rene's  grandfather,  Rene  the  first,  had  borne  the  empty 
title  of  King  of  Jerusalem  and  Sicily.  A  careful  search 
of  the  records  has  not  yet  discovered  that  Rene  the  sec- 
ond ever  assumed  this  title.  But  if  the  title  had  fallen 
into  official  disuse,  the  courtiers  of  the  duke  would  not 
fail  to  remember  it.  The  family  of  Lud,  that  had  for 
several  generations  supplied  the  place  of  secretary  to 
the  dukes  of  Lorraine,  above  all,  would  loyally  remember 
the  generally  forgotten  title.  Indeed,  in  1507,  Griinin- 
ger  printed  in  Strasbourg,  a  little  tract,  Speculi  Orbis 
(Harisse,  No.  49),  which  is  inscribed,  fnclytissimo  Renato 
Hierusalem  et  Sieiliae  Rcgi,  etc.  Dud  Lotfioringie  ac  Barn., 
G-ualterus  Ludd  ejusdem  a  secretis  et  canonicus  Deodaten- 
sis  sese  humiliter  commendat."  In  the  same  year,  ap- 
peared in  the  neighboring  town  of  St.  Die,  the  home  of 
Walter  Lud,  the  Cosmographiae  Introductio,  pre- 
pared largely  at  the  expense  of  Walter  Lud,  containing 
the  narrative  of  Vespucci's  four  voyages,  with  the  pre- 
liminary epistle  to  Rene,  with  a  dedication  in  these 
words  :  "  Illustrissimo  Renato  Iherusalem  et  Sieiliae  Regi, 
dud  Lothorengiae  ac  Barn.  Americus  Vesputius  humili- 
mem  reverentiam  et  debitam  recommendationem." 


—  23  — 

The  preliminary  epistle  to  Rene,  which  addresses  him 
throughout  as  king — "  inclytissime  Rex" — reminds  him 
of  the  days  when  he  and  Vespucci  were  schoolmates  to- 
gether, under  the  instruction  of  Vespucci's  uncle,  and 
states  that  the  letter  is  bo  rne  directly  from  Vespucci  to 
King  Rene,  hy  Vespucci's  friend  and  Rene's  servant, 
Benevenutus.  As  Rene  was  educated  at  Joinville, 
France,  by  his  mother  Yolande,  and  did  not  visit  Italy 
till  he  went  there  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine  years  to  ne- 
gotiate a  treaty  at  Florence,  Lud  and  Waltzemuller 
and  Jean  Basin,  the  trio  who  prepared  and  edited  the 
Cosmographies  Introductio,  knew  that  at  least  that  part 
of  their  work  was  fiction,  and  they  would  hardly  dedicate 
a  fiction  of  that  character  to  the  duke,  their  master  as 
well  as  friend,  without  a  full  understanding  that  he 
would  accept  it  good-naturedly  as  a  joke. 

If  the  trio  undertook  to  write  out  a  fictitious  narrative 
of  four  voyages  made  by  Vespucci,  two  under  Spanish 
auspices  and  two  under  Portuguese,  such  a  narrative  as 
was,  together  with  a  treatise  on  cosmography,  promised 
in  the  letter  previously  published,  describing  the  third 
voyage,  they  would  of  necessity  avoid  the  use  of  names 
or  other  means  of  identifying  the  voyages  described  in 
the  narrative  with  any  real  voyage.  In  that  case  the 
"vague  dfaesp&rant"  which  perplexed  Humboldt  and 
made  Navarrete  indignant,  is  not  a  dishonest  trick  of 
Vespucci,  but  a  natural  stratagem  in  a  writer  of  a  fiction. 
And  hence  the  verses  suggested  to  Ringmann  by  the 
extravagancies  of  the  separate  narrative  of  the  third 


—  24  — 

voyage,  were,  with   a  slight  verbal  change,  borrowed 
and  prefixed  to  the  letter  to  King  Rene. 

Candida  syncero  volvas  hunc  pectore  lector 
Et  lege  non  nasum  Rhinocerontis  habens. 

This  hypothesis  uow  oftered,  is  not  without  difficulties, 
but  it  is  easier  at  all  events,  to  believe  that  the  narrative 
of  the  four  voyages,  dedicated  to  King  Rene  was  not 
written  by  Vespucci,  than  to  believe  that  he  wrote  it. 


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